January 14, 2014
Closed circuit TV may be the only answer to catch vandals who continue targeting the Kingaroy War Memorial, local RSL Sub-Branch president Don Davey believes.
Vandals damaged the catafalque and rotunda in Memorial Park again last week, peeling swathes of paint off the plinth and scrawling graffiti on the walls of the rotunda. Something has also been burned on the top of the monument.
The damage was noticed on Friday morning and reported to police later that day.
Mr Davey said that because the thick paint had been stripped back to the stonework in places, he believed the whole memorial would now have to be stripped bare before it could be repainted, a job he estimated could cost thousands of dollars.
He said the damage on the monument was a deliberate act and would have taken some time to do.
Mr Davey said he had spoken to the South Burnett Regional Council while Cr David Carter was mayor about installing CCTV cameras. He believed then it was going to be considered as part of a park upgrade.
He now planned to speak to Council again to find out if it was still part of long-term plans for the area.
Mr Davey said CCTV would not stop the damage but would help police identify the offenders.
“But if it continues to be kids, they just go to Children’s Court and nothing happens. They should be made to work in the community and help clean up their damage,” he said.
The latest spate of vandalism has occurred at a significant time with the centenary of the 1914-18 war to be marked this year, and the centenary of the Gallipoli landing next year.
Mr Davey is travelling to the Netherlands in April as part of a contingent of South Burnett residents attending a plaque dedication service for Murgon war hero Patrick Tiernan, who died when his Halifax 715 was shot down over over Dodewaard on June 17, 1944.
“I wonder if they have the same problem with their sites or do their children understand the significance of the sacrifices made,” Mr Davey said.
South Burnett Acting Mayor Keith Campbell said CCTV would be one of the options that Council would be considering for Memorial Park.
He said the vandalism was “abhorrent”.
“It appears to be done by young people who do not respect or have regard for the people who fought so hard to gives us the freedom we have in this country,” Cr Campbell said.
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